'Less obesity means fatter economy'

The UN food agency says obesity and poor nutrition weigh heavily on the global economy and government investments in food health would bring big economic, as well as social, returns.

Lost productivity and spiralling healthcare bills linked to obesity cost the world economy about $1.4-trillion (R13.5-trillion) a year, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said.

Improving nutrition would boost earnings, "with a benefit-to-cost ratio of almost 13 to 1", it said, adding that some 1.4billion people were now overweight and a third of them obese.

The FAO underlined that, while there had been some progress in reducing hunger rates around the world, the problem of improving nutrition was still treated as a low priority by many countries.

"We must strive for nothing less than the eradication of hunger and malnutrition," FAO director Jose Graziano da Silva said in a video message at the presentation of the report in Italy.

In its yearly report, the Rome-based agency found that 12.5% of the world's population - or 868million people - were still undernourished.

It estimated that about 26% of children around the world were stunted by malnutrition.

FAO officials called for more "dietary diversity" and agricultural systems that were not oriented solely to production of cereals.

The FAO said rising urbanisation, sedentary lifestyles and the increased availability of packaged foods meant policymakers faced significant challenges in improving nutrition and reversing obesity.

But "the returns are high", it said.

"Investing in the reduction of micronutrient deficiencies, for example, would result in better health, fewer child deaths and increased future earnings," it said.